# If Gerald Ford had won election in 1976, would he have been a good president? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 11, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572 "2020-04-11T19:53:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankees_1996_Champs)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/1 "2020-04-11T19:53:15Z")
Imagine if Ford-Dole 1976 won it all. President Ford and Vice President Dole in January 1977, a new term to rebuild America after the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. Would Ford have been a good president? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/2 "2020-04-11T20:13:37Z")
He seemed to be a decent enough _person_, and far less of an outsider to Washington than Carter was. Even at his most mumble-mouthed, he’s a fuckin’ poet compared to Trump so… sure. Had he taken a more hawkish approach to the Iran hostage crisis, he might even have gotten re-elected in 1980, despite a second primary challenge from Reagan. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/3 "2020-04-11T20:20:50Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > He seemed to be a decent enough _person_, and far less of an outsider to Washington than Carter was. Even at his most mumble-mouthed, he’s a fuckin’ poet compared to Trump so… sure. Had he taken a more hawkish approach to the Iran hostage crisis, he might even have gotten re-elected in 1980, despite a second primary challenge from Reagan. My reaction exactly. He was not only decent he was pretty level-headed. On the other hand, if he couldn’t handle the hostage crisis any better than he did, maybe he wasn’t so well suited for an office that requires finesse on the international stage. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/4 "2020-04-11T20:52:27Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > My reaction exactly. He was not only decent he was pretty level-headed. On the other hand, if he couldn’t handle the hostage crisis any better than he did, maybe he wasn’t so well suited for an office that requires finesse on the international stage. Would Ford have kept Kissinger on at State? Kissinger was certainly no fan of the Revolutionaries and I expect would have campaigned for an invasion to overthrow them and, if not restore the Shah, at least install someone _like_ the Shah. I suppose worst-case, Iran gets reduced to a chaotic mess like Iraq or Syria. Whether or not anyone in the U.S. cares, though, is another matter. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/5 "2020-04-11T21:42:32Z")
It certainly makes you wonder what would have happened in 1980. Ford was not eligible to run again. Would Reagan still have been nominated and victorious? It totally changes the calculus. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/6 "2020-04-11T21:47:31Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It certainly makes you wonder what would have happened in 1980. Ford was not eligible to run again. Would Reagan still have been nominated and victorious? It totally changes the calculus. Just a speculation, but I feel that if Ford had been re-elected to a full second term, it might have been seen as a vindication of his more moderate stance. His defeat made it possible for conservatives to argue that the Republicans needed to try a new approach and shift to the right. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/7 "2020-04-11T21:59:52Z")
duplicate ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/8 "2020-04-11T22:35:23Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Ford was not eligible to run again. I see you are correct and my earlier comment was in error. Had Ford won in 1976, he would not have been eligible to run again in 1980 and would not have been challenged in the primaries by Reagan or anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/9 "2020-04-11T22:53:15Z")
I don’t understand the OP’s question. Ford was president for nearly 2 1/2 years. Couldn’t you look at how he performed on the job during that time and make your own determination if he was a good president? And if he was elected in 1976 wouldn’t he have remained pretty much the same? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/10 "2020-04-11T23:05:26Z")
The main thing I remember, the pratfalls and WIN buttons aside, was [him vetoing a whole host of bills](https://www.senate.gov/legislative/vetoes/FordG.htm) passed by Congress. Looking at them, I don’t see too much which were terribly objectionable. This suggests that he wasn’t much interested in coalition building. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/11 "2020-04-13T16:11:46Z")
Gerald Ford was the only Republican I ever voted for. He was a good president for 2-1/2 years, and would have continued to be one. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/12 "2020-04-13T16:16:32Z")
He loved snow skiing, and always stocked Air Force One with Coors beer to take back to the Whitehouse on his trips to Colorado! So yeah, he would have continued to be a good POTUS. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/13 "2020-04-14T09:33:18Z")
Ford was a fine President. He wasn’t special or super-smart, but he had the most essential qualities we should seek in a President: competence, humility, and having the interests of the public at heart. I don’t know if he would have done a better job than Carter. There was sharp inflation during the Carter term that is sometimes blamed on Carter, but I don’t know if that blame is well-placed. I’m not sure there would have been a big difference: this was before the unfortunate era of hyper-partisanship: leaders tended to promote policies based on their objective merits in those days. As **RickJay** implies … > [@RickJay](#): > > It certainly makes you wonder what would have happened in 1980. Ford was not eligible to run again. Would Reagan still have been nominated and victorious? It totally changes the calculus. … a big result of the Carter Presidency was the ensuing right-wing backlash. (Similarly Trump’s election was in part a reaction to Obama. America’s political flip-flopping has become absurd.) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/14 "2020-04-15T15:19:32Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > He loved snow skiing, and always stocked Air Force One with Coors beer to take back to the Whitehouse on his trips to Colorado! Huh. I guess _that_ wrinkle would have added a little spice to the screenplay of _Smokey and the Bandit_. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/15 "2020-04-15T15:37:22Z")
I’d echo what another has said. Ford was a good President, and very good one. What the county need post Nixon was honesty, trust, and confidence. Ford gave us all of that in spades. And he pardoned Nixon, which I believe (YMMV) history has proven to be the correct decision. He did this knowing that decision probably cost him the subsequent election. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/16 "2020-04-15T15:44:38Z")
No it wasn’t; at least not at the time. Had Nixon served just ONE DAY of a post-conviction sentence (or even been indicted/arrested and arraigned), Ford’s pardon would have been justifiable as a healing initiative. Avoiding the trial altogether deprived the country of the strengthening benefits of having to go through the ordeal. As such, it was unforgivable. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/17 "2020-04-15T15:53:12Z")
What we needed after Watergate was an opportunity to heal and put it behind us. And what we needed to make that happen was a fair trial and fair sentence for Nixon. Ford’s pardon was exactly the wrong move. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/18 "2020-04-15T15:53:54Z")
What we needed after Watergate was an opportunity to heal and put it behind us. And what we needed to make that happen was a fair trial and fair sentence for Nixon. Ford’s pardon was exactly the wrong move. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/19 "2020-04-15T15:57:56Z")
And don’t even get me started on his [NIM](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nim) initiative. DISCLAIMER: I might have been holding a “WIN” button upside down. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572/20 "2020-04-16T00:18:21Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Avoiding the trial altogether deprived the country of the strengthening benefits of having to go through the ordeal. As such, it was unforgivable. I really have no idea what this means. A career politician was forced from office in humiliation, never to return. A trial wouldn’t have healed a damn thing, but would have further dragged the county through more hearings with 8 hours a day on TV. But I suppose no minds will change going on 50 years later. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-gerald-ford-had-won-election-in-1976-would-he-have-been-a-good-president/851572.md?page=2)